


Bright Prospects

by canis_m



Category: Juuni Kokki | Twelve Kingdoms
Genre: F/M, Future Fic, Hijinks & Shenanigans, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-06-27
Updated: 2005-06-27
Packaged: 2017-11-12 02:45:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/485801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canis_m/pseuds/canis_m
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The birds and the bees according to Hankyo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bright Prospects

「鬼魅は降伏すべし、陰陽は和合すべし」

*

The benches in the gardens at Hakkei Palace were solid stone. Keiki sat on one of them, staring dully at the grass as his ears burned like live coals. He had never meant to spy, had in fact been on the verge of greeting his fellows where they sat in the pavilion, engrossed in talk, until at that moment En Taiho burst out, _EVERY night?_ and Taiki said, with his dark head bowed, _Not every night, but._

Eavesdropping was a sin. There was a reason it was a sin. Keiki knew he should have fled instead of listening. He grasped at the edge of the bench and continued to reel. There must be an explanation--Taiki had lived in Hourai too long, apart from his king, had lost his horn, could be forgiven eccentricities. But En Taiho, for all this time--for five hundred years? And there was no sign of suffering in En, which could only mean that Heaven--that Heaven was--

Wild-eyed, he looked up. He thought of Her Majesty and wheezed. He thought of Her Departed Majesty and could not swallow. His foremost impulse (insofar as he could determine that one feeling superceded another) was a longing to charge into the sky and run until he vaulted off the ends of the earth.

"Taiho." It was Hankyo's voice from the shadow near his shoes. "If I may presume to speak."

Keiki cleared his ragged throat. "Yes?" 

"All creatures are born male and female. Humans, birds, beasts--kirin also."

"Yes. And?"

"My lord is of course aware that males and females are formed differently. In the male yang energy abounds, in the female--"

"I am not a child," said Keiki. His posture stiffened.

"Then my lord is also aware that yin and yang attract one another," said Hankyo, in a tone that suggested he had waggled his long ears.

Keiki jerked his chin. A shadow at one's feet had no right to expound on natural philosophy, and in any case the line of reasoning was flawed. "En Taiho is a ki. So is Tai Taiho."

"But kirin are fundamentally yin. Rather, a kirin is balanced within itself, but in relation to its chosen counterpart it is yin."

"What?"

"Taiho, if I may be permitted." Hyouki rumbled his politest growl. "My lord is certainly yin. Youma like ourselves can perceive energy of this kind."

Keiki spun between affront and stupefaction. He sought the one being present who had known him from foalhood--from the time he had hung suspended in a golden fruit on the Tree of Self-Sacrifice at the center of the world. "Kaiko?!"

He felt rather than saw her nod. He fell mute. Hyouki continued blithely.

"King En and King Tai are strongly yang."

"Indeed," said Hankyo, "their yang is mighty."

"Thus in their service En Taiho and Tai Taiho have naturally inclined to yin."

Keiki lurched up, paced a few steps back and forth along the bench, then sank again. The stone, if nothing else, was firm. "And--" he broke off, quailed, rallied. "Her Majesty?"

There was a terrifying pause in which it seemed to him that the shirei were conversing in whispers too low or too evil for him to hear. They were demons, he told himself faintly--one must never forget that they were demons. At last Hankyo raised his voice.

"Her Majesty is balanced within herself. At the time when my lord Taiho escorted her from Hourai, she was strongly yin, but since then her yang energy has increased. Jouyuu can attest to this."

"At present Her Majesty seeks nothing because she lacks nothing, but she may come to be more attracted to yin."

"Let my lord rest assured of bright prospects," Hankyo said.

The long ears waggled again. The shirei fell piously silent. Keiki raised his eyes toward the east, toward the Empty Sea, and mastered the urge to bolt.


End file.
